Who Wants To Be a Camel?   – Wilmore, Pennsylvania (1907)

In an earlier postcard story, we met the prolific photographer and publisher, J. Murray Jordan.  (“Let’s Live in Clover”)

Based in Philadelphia, Jordan published in many genres; comic postcards were popular.

The face of this postcard is clearly a composite photograph of a man and a camel against a blank field.

The humorous legend reads:

“A camel can go eight days without a drink, But who wants to be a camel?”

Jordan copyrighted the illustration in 1905.

The postcard was mailed from Philadelphia in January of 1907.

A pencil inscription on the face, “C. S. 7”, is probably the identifying number of a postcard club member.

Addressed to Miss Annie Davis of Wilmore, PA, the postcard traveled across Pennsylvania to the mountain community near Johnstown.

In the comments, I link a fascinating history of Wilmore – the town’s name honors an intelligent and industrious former slave who bought his freedom and, eventually, paid out the indenture of the Irish washerwoman he married.

A small community of free Black people thrived in the valley of the Conemaugh River amid the Appalachians.

As the town grew, it became an important stop on a western route of the Underground Railroad.

(Godfrey Wilmore, who could read and write, furthered his education through reading.  He was Baptist, but his Irish wife was Catholic.

Through intense discussion and debate with the local priest, Father Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin (a Russian Prince!), Wilmore became Roman Catholic and donated land for a church.)

One hopes that Annie was amused by this comic postcard, and that she continued to exchange greetings with other correspondents.

Share:

Search By:

Topics:

More Postcards